My Hair-Did

I have a message, for everyone who has ever felt picked on because of their hairs.

Your hairs do not define you! You are more than just your hairs! They are a part of you, but they don't tell the whole story! As important as they are, they aren't everything. Just ask anyone who's ever gotten chopped on ANTM - hairs are important, but you can werk without your normal style.  #blackhairsmatter....and so do #blondehairs and #brownhairs and #redhairs. Furthermore, I want to encourage everyone to style their truth! Baby let your hair down! Drop it down low or pick it up real slow! It's your hairs, so do whatever you want with it! I support you. 

Once upon a time, I.

I.

Ihadsomehairhaters. 

Okay this is still a little hard to talk about, but I think that there are people out there who will benefit from hearing my story, so I'm going to tell it! 

I tried a new hairstyle, one that I had seen on Pinterest. It's called the Bubble Ponytail. I carefully teased, tugged, and tied until I had reached the look I was going for. However, I wasn't 100% confident in this trail I was blazing, so I went about gathering some opinions. Stephen said it looked cool, and his aunt said it was fun, but just to be sure, I txtd some important people in my life. And in my txt I included a picture, which is lucky for my visual learners in the audience:

Hmmmm. Not exactly the enthusiastic response I was hoping for....but maybe balloons are a good thing? I sent out a few more txts and figured I would just let the majority rule on this very important issue.

Nicole responded first:

What the! Okay, this was much more hurtful than I had anticipated!

I smiled as I sent this last txt. Surely my sister would feel my passion for fashion through the phone, and catch my vision, and jump on board.

......Nope, I guess I was wrong.

So that was definitely not the response I was hoping for, but in the midst of that, I got some kind words of encouragement from my friend who has a fashion blog, and I was pretty sure that a fashion blogger's opinion should count as 2 points at least, so now I had gotten 3 positive responses, 4 if you want to count the fashion blogger as 2, and 2 negatives.

Unfortunately, Jacob was the next person to respond:

Sorry for the obvious photoshopping, but I am not trying to give out my little brother's number to all the ladies who undoubtedly would have snatched it up and tried to txt him after seeing this charming exchange....

And then Julie responded after him:

I was feeling very smfimphim. <--Do you know what feels like? Like nobody understands you. Like you're all alone in a sea of people. Like there's nobody out there who shares, or even comprehends your dream! (Can I get an amen!!) 

But then I thought about Stephen's response - that "Yeah, it looks cool. I like it."

And his aunt's verdict, that it was fun and creative. 

And Caitlin's heart-eye emoji, and her comment that it was fun that I was experimenting and doing something cooler than just a plain ponytail. 

And the lady at the Dolla Store last year when I was running errands, who gasped and said "Youuuu, have the most beauuuutiful hair!" 

And the Portlandian girl who told her mom that she liked my hairs, when we were at Beacon Rock State Park.

And all these loving supporters buoyed me right back up, and helped me channel my inner Blake Lively a la Met Gala, and I went out into the world bright-eyed and bubble-ponytailed, and I loved every second of that journey. 

So my message to you is, try something new with your hairs! You are bea-u-ti-FUL! Even if there's someone out there who thinks your hair-did is a hair-dud, you can be sure there's someone right here, who wrote this blog, who thinks it's a hair-(please)-do(-over-and-over-again), and I'm cheering you on! And if you're standing in front of your mirror in doubt about your hairs, know this: if you were Bruno Mars' girlfriend, I'm sure he would write a song for your hairs, and he would mean every perfect lyric, and all the girls all around the world would swoon e'er time it came on the radio, and wish that they were you. 

You do you, hair experimenters. You're the movers and shakers, and Portlandians and fashion bloggers and Bruno Marses everywhere are rooting for you.